Monthly Archives: March 2013

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Organization: Office was set and I’ve started on my son’s room. Poor little guy, his space became storage so we’ll have to donate what doesn’t fit in the house. Can’t just clutter his closet with doll houses that no one plays with.

Exercise:Ooohhh! That came to an abrupt end. It’s very painful. I’m going to try yoga in March. That didn’t happen, we’ll try for April.

Writing: My goal is to complete four long works. I don’t want to call them novels because they may not end up that long.

Deja Vu – Completed and on sale!

WIP/Amber and Kevin – Trimmed down to 40,000 but still working on some kinks – shooting for completion by the end of April. And the cover has been nominated for 2012 Swirl Award for Best Cover – thanks to my wonderful designer!

A Loving Affair – The second story in the Rose Gold Collection. This is an outline of 13000 words and a few scenes written in a notebook. Got to get that moved over to computer. ~ Have yet to do this. Ugh! (same)

Dulce Means Sweet – The third story in the Rose Gold Collection. This is also in a notebook. No outline but character analyses completed and a few scenes. ~Eek! Double Eek!

My daughter was so excited to share with me her new favorite song. We like some of the same music, but not all so I began by half-listening while I scanned through the mail. Then I heard the lyrics –

Not really sure how to feel about it

Something in the way you move

Makes me feel like I can’t live without you

It takes me all the way

I want you to stay

That’s Darcey and Vincent. I don’t know if I achieved it in the book, but that’s what I meant. Both are hit out of nowhere with the feelings they have for each other and it’s hard to come to terms with these new emotions.

Vincent’s line that gets me – “Darcey, I almost came to blows with your dad, had it out with my mother…honey, I just don’t have the energy to pretend that it’s only sex and I’m not in love with you. Not tonight. Not right now.”

You’ll get tired of me over the next few weeks! But I’m so excited I’m posting a snippet of Deja Vu by Vallory Vance for the Hump Day Hook(be sure to check out my fellow authors for more snippets)!

“Did you need something, sweetheart?”

A waterfall of tickles cascaded down her spine with each of the words drawled out syllable by syllable until there was nothing left but a question mark hanging in the air. The idea of reigning in her impulsive nature melted in the heat beginning to rise slowly up from her toes.

“Sure.” She turned to face him and a hot wave crashed over her.

He stood less than a foot away, tightly coiled muscles covered his large frame and unlike the tailored shirt he’d worn earlier, the boxers seemed to be on the verge of ripping from his bulging thighs.

“And what did you need?”

She was done. Coyness grated away to nothingness over the coarseness in his voice. “You.”

Get your copy of the first novel of The Rose Gold Collection at the following retailers – All Romance, Smashwords(25% off with coupon code – NJ53M) and Amazon in Kindle and print format!

It’s finally done! I missed my goal of writing a full length novel, but it sure felt like I did. The final project ended up being around 49,000 words. On retail sites, the word count will show as about 50,000 words but that’s due to the summaries of the other books in the collection.

And the saga continues, I’m releasing Déjà Vu as a print title on Amazon. Yes! A paperback!

However, this is a much longer process than releasing an ebook. So for the time being, Déjà Vu will only be available from All Romance and Smashwords(25% off with coupon code – NJ53M) until the process is complete. Right now I’m waiting for my proof copy to be delivered. Believe me, I’ll be rereading each page for what seems like the hundredth time!

Also there are two covers for the book – one designed by me and the one designed using the Amazon software which will only be available through Amazon. The same model is used but the cover layouts are different. I’m wondering if this is going to cause a problem and will let you guys know if you should never do this!

So it’s out there – Déjà Vu by Vallory Vance!

After a few swipes on the wall near the door, Darcey found a switch and the bedroom flooded with light. She’d been tossing and turning for at least an hour. More wine might help in her efforts to sleep.

Maybe she’d look for that media room.

Darcey opened the door, pulled her favorite sleep shirt down over her panties, and took a tentative step into the hall. With each tiptoe across the floor, overhead lights blazed on and she traversed through the living area into the kitchen without a misstep.

Like the other rooms she’d seen, it was picture perfect— maple cabinets and shiny chrome appliances. She opened the double refrigerator and found a lone bottle of wine amid assorted juices and plastic containers. After opening a few cabinet doors, she found a glass and poured.

In the relief that followed the swallow of tangy tartness, she’d missed hearing Vincent’s footsteps across the polished stone floor.

“Did you need something, sweetheart?”

A waterfall of tickles cascaded down her spine with each of the words drawled out syllable by syllable until there was nothing left but a question mark hanging in the air. The idea of reigning in her impulsive nature melted in the heat beginning to rise slowly up from her toes.

“Sure.” She turned to face him and a hot wave crashed over her.

He stood less than a foot away, tightly coiled muscles covered his large frame and unlike the tailored shirt he’d worn earlier, the boxers seemed to be on the verge of ripping from his bulging thighs.

“And what did you need?”

She was done. Coyness grated away to nothingness over the coarseness in his voice.

“You.”

A smile lit up his face, sparkling up to his eyes. “Good girl.”

Within seconds, Vincent had lifted her off the floor. She wrapped her legs around his waist while he balanced her in his arms. She kissed the lips she’d been dreaming of for a week and her head spun.

“Mmm…” Vincent had the softest lips she’d ever kissed. Her teeth sunk into the supple cushion of his bottom lip and he pulled back with a groan.

“Wait…” He ducked away from her next kiss and began to walk them out of the kitchen. “I can’t see where I’m going.”

She ignored his attempts to avoid her mouth and bent her head to his shoulder, tracing her tongue along the popping veins of his neck.

“Wait,” he groaned out again and picked up speed. His stomach muscles rippling between her outstretched legs, only hastened her antics.

She found his mouth again and flourished her tongue inside. His now stifled groans reverberated across her tongue sending tingles from her mouth straight to a tightening between her legs.

“Owww…” Her head scraped the doorframe to the bedroom she’d vacated. Only then did her lips leave his and she looked into the clear blue irises darkening inward from their ebony edges. “Ohhh…”

“Sorry, sweetheart. Are you alright?” He deposited her in the middle of the bed and stood above her, a statue carved in some masculine ideal.

She nodded. So sweet.

“Good. Get undressed.”

There it was. The drill sergeant look she shouldn’t like. Impassive and commanding.

Still, she got onto her knees, a fire burning between her legs ignited by the deep voice that dripped heated honey over her skin. She lifted the t-shirt over head, flung it aside and shook her curls back.

Her breathing hitched in her chest under the gaze of his eyes dimming to the color of a storm surge at sea.

“And the panties.”

She wriggled them down and off, reclined back on her elbows and waited. Vincent bent low to kiss each of her ankles, moved her leg aside to kiss up her calf to the back of her knee. She gasped and giggled at the ticklish sensation.

Leaving behind the rural charms of Finnshire, Miss Penelope Fairweather arrives in London with hope in her heart and a dream in her eye. The dowager, no less, has invited her for a season in London, where she will attempt to catch a husband.
Thus begins our heroine’s tale as she attempts to tackle the London season with all her rustic finesse. Unfortunately her rustic finesse turns out to be as delicate as a fat bear trying to rip apart a honeycomb infested with buzzing bees.

What follows is a series of misadventures, love affairs, moonlit balls, fancy clothes, fake moustaches, highwaymen, sneering beauties, pickpockets, and the wrath of a devilishly handsome duke.

EXCERPT

The dowager cast a worried glance at the door while Lady Radclyff stared at the grandfather clock willing its giant needles to move.

“She is late, Mamma.”

“She will be here soon enough.”

“Do you think she is dead?”

“Annie, she is not that late!”

“Yes, but she is coming all the way from that … that Finny village. It has been raining all day and she refused our offer of a carriage. The post-chaise could have lodged itself in a pothole and overturned. I suppose she is lying in some gully, blood pooling underneath her awkwardly twisted body and not a soul in sight.”

“It’s Finnshire not Finny, and she has her maid with her.”

“Well, then the maid is dead too. The weight of the carriage finished her off well before her mistress. Poor Miss Fairweather twitched and trembled for eons fighting for that last breath.”

“I will seriously contemplate your very vivid scenario if Miss Fairweather does not arrive in the next five hours. Until then can we converse like gently bred women? If your brother heard you speaking like this, he would have you sent to the country for the next three seasons.”

“I am bored. I can’t go to the shops, go riding or feel excited about the season. Do you know that I attended a hundred and five balls last year alone, and that does not count the dinners and tea parties?”

“Miss Fairweather would have loved to attend a hundred and five balls last year. You have had the pleasure of three seasons, while the poor dear has never been to anything but the village dance.”

“What do you think she is like? Have you ever met her?”

“I have not met her, but her mother and I attended the same ladies academy. Her mother Grace was bright, full of life and laughter, and if her daughter is anything like her… ”

“Was?”

“She died giving birth to Miss Penelope Fairweather. Mr Thomas Fairweather, Penelope’s father, married the vicar’s daughter, Gertrude, within a year of Grace’s funeral. Gertrude went on to have five more children. I initiated a correspondence with Gertrude to ensure that Grace’s daughter was being well looked after—”

“Anne, Miss Fairweather is not an unwanted kitten. Where was I? Oh yes, Gertrude writes to me often. Her letters are full of her children’s antics. I feel as if I know them,” the dowager said dreamily. “I have imagined them growing up. They used to wail all night and then they were falling off apple trees ….”

“You are rambling again, Mamma. I don’t care about Miss Fairweather’s siblings. I want to know about her.”

“Why? You have never shown this much interest in any of my other guests before.”

Lady Radclyff sucked on a lemon drop, her mouth pursing in thought.

“The other guests were all the same. They say the same things, they are brought up the same way, and they all wear the same clothes. It is as if a single London lady and a London gentleman have been put into different moulds by God and recreated again and again. I can predict what the replies to my questions will be. No one is original. While Miss Fairweather sounds original.”

“Original?”

“I have never met a country bumpkin before.”

“Annie!”

“Well, it is true isn’t it? How in the world are you going to introduce her to polite society?”

***GIVEAWAY***

For your chance to win one of two copies of Anya Wylde’s Penelope via Smashwords coupon – wish the lovely Ms. Wylde a Happy St. Patrick’s Day! (Winners will be announced on the blog on Wednesday, March , 2013!)

I very much enjoyed Anya Wylde’s A Wicked Wager and was so happy to read a complimentary copy of Penelope that I received via a Smashwords’ coupon.

I expected a well-written light historical Regency romance with interesting characters involved in a plot with lots of twists and turns. And I was pleasantly surprised because I got so much more.

The heroine, Penelope, is not the poised lady who I expected to find but a country bumpkin who made me laugh, cry and come to care for her within the first few chapters.

The supporting cast was also filled with those who I looked forward to seeing throughout the book, but I will have to give my favorite supporting character award to Madame Bellefronde. The modiste is one of the most interesting characters I’ve met in quite a while!

From fake mustaches to poetic highwaymen to the hero’s fiancee, I found myself laughing throughout the book and falling in love with Penelope and her Duke.

I recommend to those who like romantic comedies and light historical romances.

I finished the outline of Déjà Vu in October 2012. At this time, it was a little over 13,000 words. I had to take a break from it because I was editing the short story, Cheers, and finding cover art.

With promotions for the short story and outlining the follow-up to Amber and Kevin’s story and the holidays, I couldn’t return to Déjà Vu until the end of December. By mid-January, I had a 52,000 word first draft. That was whittled down to about 47,000 words in the second and third drafts. Between the second and third drafts, my critique group was giving me directions and actually there is a fourth draft that went to my editor in mid-February.

It’s now mid-March. I’m supposed to stop smoking on the 15th, Spring Break is in full swing. It’s my busy season at the day job. The edits? I’m working on them. Slowly, but surely.

I keep reading and re-reading. Does this make sense? Is this sexy? Is this romantic? Questioning every single line while making sure all the words are there and the punctuation is correct.

Scared out of my mind to let this thing go. But I will. Or I’ll have to hear we could have gone here or there! And I promise my family, we will head out of town for a few days of mommy away from the computer as soon as this is published!